Sunny climbed to the roof of the APC and looked at the ravaged plain of East Antarctica, which stretched in all directions as far as the eye could see.

He could have sent his shadows instead, but on a day like today, Sunny wanted to see it all with his own eyes.

The ground was grey, and the stormy sky was grey, too. The ribbons of shallow brooks and the distant lakes were dark, resembling lead. The world seemed to have grown deathly silent, like a predator preparing to lunge at its prey. The air was brimming with suffocating tension.

In front of him, at some distance, an abandoned outpost could be seen, tilted and with its alloy walls ripped open. There was an ugly black rift of a Nightmare Gate shimmering with darkness in front of the desolate fortress, and near it, indifferent to the maddening whispers of the Call, a small figure could be seen, sitting on the ground.

It was hard to tell anything about the figure from that distance, except for the fact that it was a human. © 2024.

...Surrounding the outpost from three directions, three armies were preparing to advance.

The great clan Valor, the great clan Song, and the hastily assembled government force that was supposed to mediate a compromise... through effort and a bit of luck - or misfortune, depending on how one looked at it - all of them had reached the Nightmare Gate on the same day.

Then again, maybe it was part of some insane calculation. The Gate was situated at the very border between the territories of the two clans, and at that point, Sunny wouldn't be surprised by anything.

He was still with the war party of Clan Valor. The Awakened warriors had already disembarked from the transports, and were now silently assembling into a battle formation. Those that would be fighting on foot were positioned at the center, and those that rode Echo mounts were assembled at the flanks. Five people stood in front of the loose phalanx - Morgan, Madoc, Nephis, Saint Tyris, and the Summer Knight.

Opposite them was a much larger force. Sunny could not really see, but he knew that Beastmaster, Silent Stalker, Dire Fang, and Seishan were leading it. Behind them were the Awakened warriors of Song... and, surrounding the Awakened, was a sea of enthralled Nightmare Creatures. Countless thralls were standing motionlessly, as if frozen in place.

It was eerie and deeply disturbing to see the abominable monsters acting so subdued and obedient.

The government force was by far the smallest of the three, numbering just a hundred Awakened or so. Even though they were too far away to make out details, Sunny felt an overpowering sense of unease radiating from their small formation.

Well, they were right to feel scared.

Not only could the plain soon become a battlefield, but the abandoned outpost - and the Nightmare Gate in front of it - were deep within the hunting grounds of a Corrupted Titan. The creature was nowhere in sight, for now, but there was no guarantee that it would not arrive soon, attracted by the smell of human souls and spilled blood.

'What a disaster.'

Sunny was full of hatred toward the great clans... his contempt was justly earned, too. He had personally killed many members of Song and Valor, be it through sabotage or with his own hands. And yet, he was not happy to see them preparing to slaughter each other.

He was not sad, either. Just... resigned.

In any case, there was no place for useless emotions right now. Sunny had to steel himself and prepare to do what was needed.

Neither army seemed to be moving. The wind was picking up, and the lonely figure in front of the Nightmare Gate remained motionless, as if inviting them to approach.

After a while, several people separated from the formation of the government Awakened and walked forward. As if it were a signal, Morgan took a step forward. The rest of the Valor leaders followed her, and after hesitating for a bit, Sunny jumped down from the APC and hurried to join them.

As he left the formation, he glanced at Cassie, who had stayed back and was flanked by two Knights of Valor. The blind girl seemed calm, but he could see her hands trembling slightly.

Leaving her behind, Sunny caught up with Morgan and the rest. Nephis and Tyris looked at him with inscrutable expressions, but the princess herself seemed amused by his decision to involve himself in the negotiation.

"Master Sunless... how nice of you to join us."

He glanced at her darkly and shrugged.

"Well, my boss is over there. What else am I supposed to do?"

Morgan chuckled, seemingly unbothered by the fact that she - and all her people - could very well die today.

In fact, she looked almost... excited.

"Indeed. And what does a government agent like yourself think about the situation?"

Sunny frowned.

"First of all, I am not a government agent. I just volunteered my services to the Evacuation Army, for the duration of the Antarctica campaign. Secondly... I think that all of you have lost your minds."

Sunny had a lot of thoughts about what was happening, but it all boiled down to the fact that he still did not clearly understand the motives of the great clans. From his point of view, this whole despicable war was pure lunacy.

...Which meant a lot, coming from him.

Even if Sunny considered the desire of the Sovereigns to expand their Domains, many things still didn't make any sense. The timing of the conflict, the wasteful strategies, the excessive urgency of their actions - neither Valor nor Song were behaving normally. They were not fools, so...

There had to be something wrong with their heads, surely.

Morgan smiled.

"Lost our minds? Ah, I see. I guess it would indeed look like that, from the sidelines."

Her smile disappeared, replaced by cold ruthlessness.

"However, I can assure you. It is the world that has gone mad, not us."

After that strange remark, there was no more time to talk.

The Nightmare Gate drew nearer, and finally, Sunny could see who was waiting calmly in its shadow.

It was a slender young man clad in a suit of dark armor, with pale skin and raven-black hair. His face was sharp and thin... not exactly handsome, but at the same time charming and strangely beautiful.

His most striking feature, though, were his eyes, which didn't seem to possess a color of their own, and instead reflected the world back on itself like two pools of liquid silver.

Mordret had been crouching on the ground, his expression calm and reserved. Noticing the approaching emissaries, he slowly rose and looked at them with cold intensity.

Sunny expected a familiar grin to appear on the lips of the Prince of Nothing, but instead, Mordret remained strangely impassive.

Then, finally, a corner of his mouth bent upward in a dark, joyless smile.

"You've finally arrived."